Lisa Visentin

To the death: A 56-year-old Indian villager used farming tools to fight a leopard which attacked her in the northern state of Uttarakhand. Photo: Getty Images

In a showdown replete with echoes of gladiatorial battles of yore, a woman, armed only with a sickle and spade, has fought a leopard. And won.

Kamla Devi, 56, a villager from the Rudraprayag district in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, was fetching water from a canal on Sunday morning when she was attacked by the leopard that had been hiding in nearby bushes.

"At first, I was terrified. But then I gathered my courage to fight back. I promised myself that this is not my last day here," Ms Devi told the Hindustan Times.

Armed only with rudimentary farming tools, Ms Devi was forced into a fight to the death. She bashed the animal on the head with her sickle, smashing its teeth before eventually killing it.

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"I fought head on with it for almost half an hour. Then I came to know it was dead," she told reporters from hospital in the nearby town of Srinagar Garhwal.

Ms Devi did not escape unscathed.

"She has two fractures on the right hand and one on the left," said Dr Abdul Rahul, who has been treating her.

"She also has deep injuries on her head and legs. There are bite marks all over her body."

Pankaj Bist, one of the villagers who helped take Ms Devi to hospital, said: "She is very brave. She attacked the leopard and took the fight head-on with her sickle."

Villagers say marauding leopards have become an increasing threat to locals as human settlements encroach on their habitat.

In the past week, a woman was killed elsewhere in Uttarakhand, and another was injured in the Rudraprayag area of the state.